What do we treasure the most?

What we treasure can vary from artefacts left to us from relatives, to coins, jewellery, houses, antique cars and so on. Sometimes we treasure the accumulation of wealth accompanied by a continuous desire to have more and more. There seems to be no limit to the spiral of how much is enough.

The most earthly thought when treasures are accumulated is the fear that your treasures will be lost, stolen or destroyed. To some, the overriding thought of joy or peace never seems to be attained no matter how many treasures are stored or acquired. The reason is really quite simple why this is the case.

The reason is this: nothing acquired, valued or possessed can be taken with you when you die. And we all will die no matter how much we have or possess. We could have everything buried with us, but it will just sit in a grave until someone digs it up and takes it. But it still won’t be of any use to us once we are gone.

But, the good news is that there are treasures that can be stored for you – ones that will never rust or be stolen or decay.

How? Read on to find out.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6: 19-20

In other words, doing what God commands us to do is the way to accumulate treasures in heaven.

This doesn’t mean we are all called to live in poverty, but rather that we are to use the gifts that God gives to each one of us to serve Him, not ourselves. Yes we have possessions, yes we have more than we actually need, and God is very generous. But he also gives us a responsibility, a responsibility to help those that are in need. This maybe through giving financially when we see or are made aware of a need. It might mean giving time and energy to something.

Most of all though it is a change of attitude, a change of heart. See what we have as not ours but God’s for us to use for His service, not for ourselves to hold onto jealously. How we treat what we have can be seen as a reflection of our relationship with God. Are we willing to let others use what we have? Are we willing to ensure that there is enough? Or are we much happier to guard our treasures and make sure that we have them to ourselves?

As Robert Morris states in his book, The Blessed Life: “When we use money for righteous purposes, we are laying up treasure in heaven. That’s why I want to be a wise steward of money. I want to use it to invest in churches and ministries that are

investing in people. I want my money to be used for helping people, loving people, feeding people and caring for people.”

Each one of us has a choice: to accumulate treasures here on earth that will certainly be lost upon our death, or, we can lay up our treasures in heaven where they will never rot, be stole or destroyed. What would you rather have?